MinnLawyer Blog

In reading the Star Tribune’s Jon Tevlin’s column today praising  lead Petters prosecutor Joe Dixon, one gets a good feel for his aggressiveness as an advocate. Certainly Dixon — along with the rest of the Petters prosecution team — deserves praise. It was a mult-billion-dollar fraud case into which they poured their hearts and souls for months, securing a complete victory.

 But then there’s the small matter of Dixon’s height. Tevlin makes a big deal of Dixon’s stature. Even the title of the piece, “Prosecutor in Petters case is a ‘pint-sized Elliot Ness,’” seems to imply it’s all about size. I have no idea what the size of the actual Ness was. I tried to find it with a Google search, but could not quickly locate it .I know Kevin Costner, who played Ness in the movie “The Untouchables,” is not that tall (at 6′1″, he’d be just a little above average).  

In any event, why should we assume as a general proposition that taller people are somehow, pardon the pun, more up to the task? A little common sense should tell us that just ain’t so. Here is someone’s short response to Tevlin’s column, which was the “featured comment” on the Star Tribune’s website:

              Always run away from short attorneys….
Pint size is right. A few others come to mind immediately, Criminal defense, Joe Freiberg [sic], (brutal businessman, Ross Perot),Ron Meshbesher, Lori Swanson, (former US Attorney) Rachel Paulose, to name just a few. No, next time I see a shorter or pint size attorney or business person,,, I’m running the opposite direction. They strike certain fear in my eyes,, and I’m a BIG(slow)dog.